Weight Loss

Welcome to Weight Loss. This page is your doorway to numerous resources to help you lose weight in a healthy sustainable way. The term weight loss is being used in the broad sense.  What we really mean by weight loss is getting your body to its most healthy shape and composition. Being overweight is an expensive business, both from a community perspective and the perspective of an individual.  Health care costs are higher, productivity is lower and the sense of well being is lower.  If you are overweight you can gain significant financial and quality of life benefits from embarking on a sensible weight loss program.  When on a weight loss program remember it is more important how you look and feel than what you actually weigh. It is possible to improve your diet, step up exercise and still not lose weight - but be looking and feeling much better because the composition of your body has changed.  You have lost fat and created muscle.

Is the Weight Loss Calculator Foolproof?

The weight loss calculator is only a signpost.  If it indicates you are overweight your attention is drawn to this possibility and you need to investigate further. By way of example, a person of 180cm height who weighed 81kgs would be considered overweight (only just).  This person would have to exceed 97kgs before they were classified as obese. This highlights one of the cautions in using the BMI scale.  There are some highly trained sports people who would weigh over 97kgs and be 180 cm or less. Some highly trained sports people build muscle bulk for strength and size.  Other highly trained sports people (eg marathon runners) could return an underweight score.

The ideal weight concept is only an opportunity to provide you with a point of focus, not a true ideal weight.

Understand the cost of being overweight

It is likely being overweight will have a significant cost to you, especially if you are significantly overweight. According to the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council there are a number of diseases associated with obesity . If you are overweight, a weight loss program or even a weight loss action plan, can help you stay away from these diseases. Having a great diet and good physical exercise will not only help you be healthier, but it is likely you will also be more productive, energetic and confident.

Have a Weight Loss Diet

To lose weight you need to either burn up more kilojoules or consume less. Consuming less kilojoules does not necessarily mean you need to eat less. It means a better diet.  For instance, vegetables have only about one tenth the kilojoules per gram when compared to sweets. So having a healthy diet is more important than just eating less.

Have an exercise program

Exercise is such a benefit to any weight loss program.  For starters when you are exercising you are not eating.  Exercise burns up kilojoules, builds muscle, increases your general metabolic rate even after you finish exercise and can improve your general sense of well being, purpose and achievement. There is also evidence that exercise will increase your income.

If you are particularly focused on weight loss then how you exercise is significant.  The key determinant of the effectiveness of exercise from a weight loss point of view is the rate your heart is beating.  In fact in the training zones there is a special zone called the fat burning zone.  The fat burning zone is where you burn up the most fat per hour. Simplistically, your fat burning zone occurs when your heart rate is around 60% of your maximum heart.  You will find at this rate you should still feel quite comfortable.  A great explanation of all the training zones and a calculator so you can calculate your training zones can be found at training zones calculator.